Various remote controls are available in the marketplace today to control televisions, video games, set top boxes, and the like. One example is the ubiquitous infrared television remote control which includes an array of single-purpose buttons and communicates with an entertainment unit using an infrared Light Emitting Diode (LED). Some such remote controls have an extraordinary number of buttons that cause such remote controls to be confusing to use and physically bulky.
Another example is the remote controller that interfaces with the Nintendo™ Wii™ entertainment system. The Wii™ remote control (a.k.a., the “Wiimote”) includes a three-dimensional accelerometer and an optical sensor. The accelerometer facilitates the remote control's detection of movement, while the optical sensor is adapted to receive light from a sensor bar to more accurately determine the position of the remote control in space. The Wii™ remote control is robust but expensive and requires the use of a separate sensor bar.
An additional remote control device, described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,489,298, has a rotation sensor and acceleration sensor to detect motion of a 3D pointing device and map motion into a desired output. However, using a rotation sensor in addition to an accelerometer increases cost. There is currently no remote control device on the market that provides adequate performance using a single accelerometer unsupplemented by additional accelerometers, sensor bars, rotational sensors, and the like.